Vulnerabilities
Misconfiguration
Compliance
CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2011-3869

Improper Link Resolution Before File Access ('Link Following')

Published: Oct 27, 2011 | Modified: Apr 11, 2025
CVSS 3.x
N/A
Source:
NVD
CVSS 2.x
6.3 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:C/A:C
RedHat/V2
4.6 MODERATE
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
RedHat/V3
Ubuntu
HIGH
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Additional information
NVDhttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2011-3869
CWEhttps://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/59.html

Puppet 2.7.x before 2.7.5, 2.6.x before 2.6.11, and 0.25.x allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on the .k5login file.

Weakness

The product attempts to access a file based on the filename, but it does not properly prevent that filename from identifying a link or shortcut that resolves to an unintended resource.

Affected Software

NameVendorStart VersionEnd Version
PuppetPuppet2.6.0 (including)2.6.0 (including)
PuppetPuppet2.6.1 (including)2.6.1 (including)
PuppetPuppet2.6.2 (including)2.6.2 (including)
PuppetPuppet2.6.3 (including)2.6.3 (including)
PuppetPuppet2.6.4 (including)2.6.4 (including)
PuppetPuppet2.6.5 (including)2.6.5 (including)
PuppetPuppet2.6.6 (including)2.6.6 (including)
PuppetPuppet2.6.7 (including)2.6.7 (including)
PuppetPuppet2.6.8 (including)2.6.8 (including)
PuppetPuppet2.6.9 (including)2.6.9 (including)
PuppetPuppet2.6.10 (including)2.6.10 (including)
PuppetPuppet2.7.2 (including)2.7.2 (including)
PuppetPuppet2.7.3 (including)2.7.3 (including)
PuppetPuppet2.7.4 (including)2.7.4 (including)
PuppetPuppetlabs2.7.0 (including)2.7.0 (including)
PuppetPuppetlabs2.7.1 (including)2.7.1 (including)
PuppetUbuntudevel*
PuppetUbuntuhardy*
PuppetUbuntulucid*
PuppetUbuntumaverick*
PuppetUbuntunatty*
PuppetUbuntuupstream*

Potential Mitigations

  • Follow the principle of least privilege when assigning access rights to entities in a software system.
  • Denying access to a file can prevent an attacker from replacing that file with a link to a sensitive file. Ensure good compartmentalization in the system to provide protected areas that can be trusted.

References

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